By Joseph Lamin Kamara
Chief Administrative Officer of the Freetown Metropolitan Police has appealed to the central government to help minimise street-trading in the city.
Speaking to Politico, Superintendent Desmond Marsh said “Government should empower citizens by creating more jobs, more decent markets and free education for girls, to minimise street trading.”
His appeal came after officers of his institution seized business items from traders mostly in the central business district. He said they were doing their best to contain “the problem of street trading", but that the traders would always return to the streets.
Marsh said that even when fines were levied against offenders they had always gone back to the streets. He stated that a culprit should pay a fine of Le 500, 000 but that they were being "considerate enough to levy fines according to business sizes" with the fines ranging from Le 100,000 to Le 200,000.
The chief admin furthered that detention of offenders occurred only when the wrongdoers put up a stiff resistance or insulted the Mayor.
“Ebola has affected our operations,” complained Marsh which he said meant they were only doing “pushback operations.”
Tenneh Kabbah, one of the alleged wrongdoers, pleaded for the return of her items which included skin-tight trousers and bodies seized at the East End Police station. She said she was a student preparing for her school-leaving exams next year at Providence High School.
She said she was doing business to “help my parents raise my fees and assist the home because I don’t want to indulge in indecent lifestyles with men.” She said her mother had just given her Le 50,000 as capital to help raise her private WASSCE fees of Le 600,000.
Zainab Bangura, who said she was trading at Salad Ground, said she was only pleading for the return of her items which she claimed amounted to Le 600,000. She said she was also a student. “If we have a place to do our businesses out of the streets, I will not go to the street,” she said.
The head of the Metropolitan Police Superintendent John T. Lassayo opined that free education for girls was indeed essential. “In essence it is fine for education to be free for girls,” he stressed. He however stated that the behaviourial patterns of certain people had always caused them to trade even if they had free access to education.
He said the Ebola outbreak had affected their operations because they had no protective gear to effect arrests.
(C) Politico 21/08/14
